Let’s face it folks, there’s no reason to panic about how Trent Whitfield’s season-ending injury, reported and confirmed by numerous outlets the last couple days, is going to affect the depth chart in Boston.

If there’s one area the Bruins can afford to lose players, it’s at center.

After their top three of Marc Savard, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, the Bruins can feature Gregory Campbell, Tyler Seguin, Joe Colborne, Zach Hamill or Max Sauve in the middle. Heck, even newly acquired sniping winger Nathan Horton, prospect Brad Marchand and journeyman Jeremy Reich have manned the middle in the past.

Whitfield’s injury is unfortunate for the 33-year-old’s career (by all accounts he’s a great guy and his opportunities to enjoy NHL success are obviously decreasing), but it’s merely a blip on the Boston Bruins’ radar.

Of course, about 45 miles south, Whitfield’s injury will have a more profound effect. While the Bruins brought in Reich, a former captain of the Providence (AHL) farm club, this summer, Whitfield was still going to provide invaluable leadership to what promises to be a super-young – both in terms of age and pro experience – P-Bruins club next season. Whitfield, who wore the ‘C’ last year when he was calling the Dunkin’ Donuts Center home, took most of Providence’s players under his wing and rewarded Boston for signing him to a two-year deal by being one of the better “organizational guys” around.

He didn’t use his time with the P-Bruins just to stay sharp for his several call-ups, which he still managed to do really well. He mentored a team that, like its parent club, was decimated by injuries (in addition to call-ups) and hung in the playoff race until the final weeks of the season.

This year, Providence will be leaning heavily on Colborne, Caron, Sauve, Matt Bartkowski, Yuri Alexandrov and Steve Kampfer – all first-year pros. While the presence of Reich and a few other AHL veterans, and a few prospects with a couple pro years under their belts, should help, it’ll be difficult to replace Whitfield’s intangibles.

Maybe while rehabbing his injury, he’ll be able to provide a shoulder to cry on and a spread some wisdom through the locker room. However, it won’t be the same as having him on the ice during practices and games, and could have an effect on Boston down the road, as it comes to rely on some of this year’s crop of AHL rookies, more than it’ll bother the Bruins this winter.

Sorry for Trent and do believe he did have some influence on Providence’s younger players. What confuses me, and why M. Kalmer thinks he’s great, is what does Murray show for his tenure as coach?? IMO he has not produced because fill-ins like Hamill, Penner, etc. do not appear to be ready or improved. What say you??

That has been my thoughts as far as Hamill goes, Matt. Why play him another year in Providence ? The Bruins aren’t going to re-sign Zack after this year anyways so throw him into the fray with better talent for a few games see what he can do.

I thought the guy played hard while he was up on the big club. He didn’t produce much, but you can’t ask for more than all out effort, which put him in a select crowd last season. Too bad for him, but he would probably have been passed over for the likes of Caron, Coburne, Sauve and Hamill this season. On another note, is this a make or break season for Hamill?

Whitfield will not be missed by me sorry that he might be facing a career ending injury but it is time for the youth movement of Caron/Sauve/Colborne in Bruins land as far as forwards go.

I don’t think this effects the Bruins depth at all as I did not understand Julien’s love affair of Trent, last season during the playoffs, who is a career AHLer. Julien locks in on players like Ryder, Whitfield and Begin then will not give up on them baffling.